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Hunting in Boulder County

By Tim Brass

Posted:
12/01/2013 01:00:00 AM MST

Boulder County ought to be proud of its nearly 100,000 acre portfolio of public lands. Purchase and protection of these varied landscapes -- whether wild, tilled or manicured parks -- adds to the quality of life and ecological integrity of the area. This effort has kept Boulder beautiful, and according to Boulder County Open Space's website, has conserved "natural, cultural, and agricultural resources and providing public uses that reflect sound resource management and community values."

Yet, while the people of Boulder County deserve credit for having the foresight and political will to maintain the traditional land uses and character of the landscape, there's one cultural tradition that's being lost in the county: hunting. Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists have suggested that this loss of hunting has contributed to unsustainable wildlife populations and a resource management scheme that is far from being sound.

Boulder County's visitor use policy currently prohibits hunting of any kind on county-owned land; thus each time a parcel is purchased another area becomes completely off-limits to this traditional pastime and wildlife management tool. In some areas, such as Rabbit Mountain Open Space, a lack of hunting coupled with few large carnivores has led to an overpopulation of resident elk, which have in turn taken a toll on native plant species as well as neighboring farmers' fields. The agricultural damage that the overpopulated Saint Vrain Elk Herd causes on neighboring private lands averages around $20,000 per year. And guess who picks up the tab? You got it; hunters.

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By state law, hunters (via Colorado Parks & Wildlife license sales) are responsible for covering the losses incurred by private agricultural crop and livestock producers, as a result of predation of crops or livestock by game species. Yet, Boulder County's no-hunting policy prevents us hunters from helping to actively manage the herd size on the 20,000 acre Rabbit Mountain Open Space that surrounds the site of game damage.

In partnership with numerous sportsmen organizations interested in addressing this growing issue, Boulder County should support a revised policy which allows for limited and well-regulated hunting as a wildlife management tool, where conflicts with other public land users can be avoided. For years Colorado Parks & Wildlife biologists have recommended that Boulder County implement limited hunting programs at Rabbit Mountain (and elsewhere) to control the populations and limit game damage to neighboring private land.

One needs to look no further than Larimer County's Red Mountain Open Space or Jefferson County's Cone Peak Open Space for examples of successful and well-managed public hunting programs that are accessible to average-means sportsmen. Meanwhile hunting access to other private land in the area can cost thousands of dollars per year, these publicly-owned spaces provide highly sought after local hunting opportunities for average-means hunters.

As a hunter who helps cover the cost of crop damage through license fees and who, until recently, contributed taxes to Boulder County's Open Space protection efforts, a policy which completely prohibits any opportunity for hunting on the county's growing public land estate rubs me the wrong way, to say the least. Further, as an ecologist who understands the need for wildlife management that's based on science rather than emotion, there seems to be no good reason not to allow for limited hunting. And if the people of Boulder County decide to refuse to allow hunting of game species in problem areas on our public lands, it would only seem fair that those same people foot the bill for the agricultural and ecological damage that the overpopulated species cause.

Boulder should be proud of the 156 square miles of property it has purchased and protected for wildlife and people. However, the people must realize that in doing so, the county has substantially contributed to the number one issue facing hunters nationwide -- a loss of public access -- thus forcing resident hunters out of Boulder County to enjoy their pastime in other parts of Colorado. The result is a resource management scheme that disenfranchises traditional land users, leads to unsustainable populations of wildlife, and illogically passes the costs of this policy off to the disenfranchised hunters. It's simply not fair.

The time is now for Boulder County to solve this problem. And hunters are waiting and willing to work towards a reasonable solution.

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